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I’d ended it with love.

With their personal peace.

With two people standing in the aftermath and choosing to keep living.

And wasn’t that the bravest ending of all?

My phone buzzed in my back pocket. I fished it out.

Edith.

“I tracked the package,” she said breathlessly the second I answered. “I know it arrived. Did you open the door? Are they there?”

“They’re here,” I said, smiling. “I’m already holding one.”

“Oh my God, Chloe,” she said, voice breaking. “I cried. I ugly cried. I cried so hard my husband thought someone died. You ripped me apart and put me back together again.”

I laughed softly. “That was kind of the goal.”

“I want more,” she declared.

“You’ll get more,” I said easily. “I’ve already started a new series.”

A beat.

“About Seris and Kael?”

“No,” I said gently. “Their story is done.”

“But—”

“They got their happily ever after,” I said. “Exactly the one they were meant to have.”

There was a long pause.

“All right,” Edith muttered. “I don’t like it, but I respect it.”

I smiled to myself.

We hung up, and I stayed there on the couch for a while longer, book resting in my lap, letting the quiet settle.

Later that night, Zarek closed the book in bed and turned to me, his expression unreadable for half a second.

Then he smiled.

“You are amazing,” he said. “Congratulations, sweetheart.”

I felt heat rush into my cheeks. Zarek liking my work had always mattered more than any review or sales number. He’d been my first reader in every sense that counted.

“Seriously,” he added, brushing his thumb along my jaw. “This is going to launch you into the stratosphere. I’ll be able to quit, and you can keep me in the lifestyle I want to become accustomed to. Champagne and caviar, baby!”

I snorted.

Then I giggled.

Which was all the invitation he needed.

Zarek attacked.